Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, a lot of people are familiar with this saying. It goes like this:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall

[delay] these couriers from the swift completion of their

appointed rounds.

That is the motto of the U.S. Postal Service, inscribed on the buildings, and emblazoned in our memories of the dutiful work and awesome responsibility of the U.S. Postal Service throughout our history.

I am proud of the Postal Service, and most Americans are as well. If you ask many people ``What is your contact with the Federal Government, the U.S. Federal Government?'' they might be hard-pressed to identify it, but when you mention the Postal Service, they say ``Of course. Six days a week, my mailman, the person delivering the mail.''

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, many of us stayed home in our neighborhoods for lengthy periods of time. It became a routine that when the mailman came each day, as he did, we went out to greet him with masks

on and chatted for just a moment or two.

It was a tough assignment. They were no longer showing up at 2 p.m. in the afternoon as usual but sometimes 7 and 8 o'clock at night. They kept up with their responsibility.

I say that because I want to preface these remarks by letting everyone know that I am proud of the Postal Service. I will fight to keep it in business serving America, and I know that it is going through extreme hardship at the present time.

But 2 nights ago, I was on a town meeting call with Alderman Leslie Hairston of the Fifth Ward in Chicago. She asked me to come on the call because of the problems that she is having in the Hyde Park area. She wanted me to hear some of the situations that they were facing in the Fifth Ward.

The U.S. Postal Service, unfortunately, is a lifeline that is being threatened at the current time. So many people in Chicago and all across the country depend on it for regular, prompt mail service to deliver everything from birthday cards to bills, cards, checks, and medicine. Yet, for months now, mail delivery has been slow and unpredictable for millions of Americans.

I have heard from many Chicago-area residents, just like I heard the other night, and small businesses that have gone upwards of a month--a month--without the delivery of mail. These delays are having a devastating impact on the lives of families in my State.

One Chicago man said that after receiving no mail for 3 weeks, he went to the local post office to check where his mail was. He waited in line for 6 hours before he finally was given his mail. Another woman wrote me that she worries that missing bills will hurt her credit rating, making it even harder for her to make ends meet. Another woman wrote that she worries that missing bills will hurt not only her credit rating but could hurt her personally by denying basic prescriptions and medicine that she counts on. Small business owners are losing customers because their mail-order deliveries are delayed or just flat disappear.

But this vivid example that brings these together is the story of Ms. Carmella McCoy Gonzalez. She has a disability. She is unable to travel really much outside her home--restrictions that have become even more constraining during the pandemic. Ms. McCoy Gonzalez suffers from high blood pressure and a heart condition, making her regular delivery of medication essential. However, she reports that for the past few months, she and her neighbors are lucky if they get mail delivered one day a week. She told my office that a shipment of medicine sent on February 8 didn't reach her home until February 23, while others just simply didn't arrive at all.

When they reached out to the local post office, they were told that they wouldn't be getting any mail because there weren't enough carriers to deliver it. In fact, a report from the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General in early February found that the reason there weren't enough postal carriers to deliver the mail is that the administrators just hadn't bothered removing the names of employees who no longer worked there. This meant they weren't able to bring in additional staff when needed to deliver a growing backlog of delayed mail.

The report noted that more than 60,000--60,000--pieces of mail had been delayed in Chicago neighborhoods over a period of several weeks. These delays are not new, and they are certainly not confined to Chicago. U.S. Postal Service customers in many States have endured delays and other problems with mail service for months. Veterans are going without medication that has been mailed to them from the VA. Small businesses are missing delivery dates. Families are missing paychecks and not receiving notices of premiums due in time.

Timely, reliable mail delivery is always important, and it is especially critical now. Receiving medications and other important deliveries enables people to stay safely at home rather than to venturing out and risking COVID infections.

Regular mail service helps sustain the economy during an unprecedented public health crisis by providing a low-cost shipping option for small businesses that are struggling to survive. Yet, rather than focusing on how to fix the current delivery delays, U.S. Postal Service leaders are now considering changes that could result in higher prices and even more delays. This is no plan to fix the Postal Service; it is a plan to sabotage the Postal Service in order to benefit its commercial competitors.

Cut service, raise prices, then lose customers because you cut services and raised prices, and then just repeat that destructive cycle again and again until there are little or no customers left--that is the plan of the Postal Service under Postmaster General DeJoy, and Congress needs to step in. We must demand that the Postmaster General implement new policies and operational changes immediately to end delivery delays in Chicago and across the country. Congress needs to ensure the Postal Service has all the resources and tools it needs to provide reliable and affordable services during this critical time and to come out of this pandemic on secure financial footing.

Our Founders understood that reliable and affordable mail service was essential to our economy and our national unity. The Postal Service is the one public service that is so important that it is actually mentioned by name in the Constitution. We cannot allow its temporary custodians, appointed by the previous administration, to kill it with a death of a thousand cuts in order to enrich private competitors, especially during this pandemic.

This situation is grave and serious. For a lot of people, the delay of a day or two in receiving mail is just an inconvenience; for others, it could be a matter of life or death literally when so many medicines are moving through the mail, prescriptions and medications that people count on for their livelihood. And it really is something that has been so fundamental in America.

We have to ask the basic question: What is going on here? I am happy to report that yesterday the Biden administration announced that they were appointing three new Governors to fill three vacancies on the Postal Board of Governors. Those vacancies have been too long in festering and creating the situation we have today.

The Postmaster General, Mr. DeJoy, who came to this position in controversy when he started suggesting he was going to delay the delivery of ballots in the previous election of November 3, is adamant that he is going to continue on his mission. We have to intervene on behalf of the people whom we represent and on behalf of this country.

I stand by the Postal Service. I believe in the men and women who make it work. And everyone I have met--certainly in my neighborhood and the ones who have been coming to my home over the years--almost became a part of the family. I knew all about their families and some of the problems and wonderful things that were happening in their lives. That was part of the experience, the postal experience, in smalltown America that we want to preserve. But when it comes to the big cities, we have to be sensitive to that as well. When massive amounts of mail are being held in trailer trucks behind the post office, not being sorted and delivered, it is just absolutely, positively unacceptable.

If COVID-19 among the workforce is one of the reasons, let's address that directly--in terms of vaccinations, No. 1; in terms of replacement employees or temporary employees, No. 2; whatever it takes to keep the Postal Service at the highest quality.

I urge my colleagues, when you go home, if you are hearing the same stories about the U.S. Postal Service, let's make this a bipartisan response. Families and businesses and vulnerable individuals across America are counting on us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this week America reached a heartbreaking milestone, one that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago. We have now lost more than 500,000 Americans to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is one in every five COVID-19 deaths in the world. We have lost mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. On Monday evening, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their spouses remembered all of these lost souls in a moving ceremony at the White House. Behind them, 500 flickering candles lined the White House stairs, each candle representing a thousand lives cut short by the virus, a thousand grieving families. In addition, more than 28 million Americans have been infected by the coronavirus in this pandemic

No State, no community in America, has been spared in this sadness. In my State of Illinois, COVID-19 has claimed more than 20,000 lives. My heart goes out to and every American trying to survive in this terribly difficult year. I have heard others say, and I agree: This pandemic will not break us, but it is showing us where we are broken.Like so many other diseases and health conditions, the pandemic has inflicted disproportionate harm on people and communities of color--Black Americans, Native Americans, and members of the Latinx community.

Black Americans get sick and die of COVID at 1.5 times the rate of White Americans. Despite their greater risks of infection and death, people of color are receiving COVID vaccinations at less than half the rate as White Americans. In Illinois, Black residents make up 15 percent and Latinx residents make up 18 percent of our State's population, yet each group accounts for

only 8 percent of the COVID vaccines allocated so far.

Sadly, these statistics come as no surprise. America has a long history of medical inequality. From premature births to premature deaths, people of color suffer disproportionately from America's troubled health care system. People of color in America suffer more chronic and acute health conditions. They are more likely to go without needed medical care, and they have shorter life expectancies. According to new estimates from the CDC, life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year as COVID-19 swept through the Nation last year--the steepest decline in life expectancy since World War II. Again, the pain was unequal. Latinx Americans' life expectancy declined by 2 years and Black Americans' by 3 years. The reasons for the disparities are many and varied, but they include unequal access to affordable healthcare, inadequate research, and too few healthcare professionals of color.

Martin Luther King called healthcare inequality ``the most shocking and inhumane'' form of injustice. Far too often, this inequality begins even before birth. It should shock our consciences that the United States, one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, has one of the world's poorest records for maternal and infant health. Think of this: The United States is one of only 13 nations in the world where the maternal mortality rate is worse now than it was 25 years ago. Every year in America, nearly 1,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications and 70,000 others suffer near-fatal complications as a result of pregnancy. Now consider this: Women of color in the United States are three times more likely than White women to die as a result of their pregnancy. In Illinois, they are six times as likely to die. What makes these maternal deaths even more tragic is that an estimated 60 percent of them are preventable. The same is true of many infant deaths. Every year in America, more than 23,000 infants die due to factors that, in many cases, could be prevented. Among the 35 wealthiest nations in the world, the United States ranks 32nd in infant mortality. Again, the risks are unequal. Black babies are twice as likely to die in their first year of life as White babies.

I have given a lot of thought and spoken with many experts about how we can bridge this racial divide. This week, I am reintroducing a bill with Senator Duckworth that I believe can decrease America's rates of maternal and infant sickness and deaths, especially among those of color. It is called the MOMMA Act. My companion in the House is Congresswoman Robin Kelly of Chicago. She and I have introduced this bill for the last two Congresses. It is time to make it law.

First and foremost, the MOMMA Act would expand Medicaid coverage for new moms from 60 days to a full year postpartum. Making sure new moms have health coverage for a full year postpregnancy will go a long way toward catching, preventing, and treating potentially life-threatening conditions and problems. This is critical because in some States--like Illinois--nearly 60 percent of pregnancy-associated deaths occur between 43 and 364 days postpartum. Many States' Medicaid Programs, including Illinois's are strapped for cash, and the pandemic has increased their shortfalls. In addition, our bill would provide States with guidance and options to expand their Medicaid coverage to include doulas, who are often invaluable assets and advocates for pregnant women. Next, our bill would save lives by improving health care education and training to reduce the unconscious biases and discrimination that woman of color too often encounter from healthcare professionals. Lastly, our bill would improve hospital coordination and reporting on maternal health outcomes. Accurate reporting will enable us to chart our progress and make adjustments where and when they are needed.

Among the women at greatest risk of pregnancy-related health complications are women who are incarcerated. Again, the risks for Black women are greater. To help these mothers and their babies, Senator Booker and I have introduced a separate bill. The Justice for Incarcerated Moms Act helps incarcerated pregnant women and new mothers with access to doulas and other health workers, as well as counseling, because a jail sentence should never be a death sentence for a mother or her newborn. As the poet Maya Angelou told us, we can't change the past. But when we know better, we must do better. We now know how we can do better to protect the lives of pregnant women and newborn babies. I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting these two important measures to give mothers and babies the healthy start in life that they deserve.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, last week, I was home, as most Members of the Senate were, but I was asked to participate in a Zoom call with two people I highly respect, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Collins, with the National Institutes of Health. While sitting at my dining room table in Springfield, IL, there were about a dozen Senators who had access to Zoom to be a part of that conversation. I felt like I was privileged to really hear some information which most Americans wanted to hear, and I knew it had to be important for them to ask for a briefing in the middle of the week.

What they were talking about during the course of that hour were variants, what is happening to this coronavirus as it replicates over and over and over again millions of times. What they told us--and I am a liberal arts lawyer, so I don't profess any sort of medical expertise here--was that there were dominant variants that were starting to emerge, and they told us the shorthand description that they used in the laboratories.

I just remember that the first one was the UK, United Kingdom, variant. They said, by the end of March, which is not that far away--4 weeks plus--it will be the dominant strain of coronavirus in the United States. I was taken aback by that to think that a variant could become that dominant that quickly, but it was fair warning that it was about to occur. Then they talked about the South African variant, which is just starting to appear.

The good news is they have done enough testing to believe that both of the major vaccines we are now using across America, which are Moderna and Pfizer--I have Pfizer, and my wife has Moderna--are effective against the UK, United Kingdom, variant. The jury is still out when it comes to the South African variant. There is a third variant, and I won't venture into trying to remember exactly what that was about, but I remember it had some origin in South America.

I heard that news, and I thought to myself, this is an ongoing battle. We haven't run up any kind of score against this coronavirus. We can't sit back and relax. We are in a very busy third quarter in trying to vaccinate America and in watching for each and every new threat.

So, in that circumstance, if you were the President of the United States, what would you do?

Well, Joe Biden, President Joe Biden, decided that we needed to be aggressive, that we needed to face reality, not only with regard to the half a million Americans who have died but that we need to put together the tools to fight this coronavirus as we know it and as it is likely to evolve. He needs an army to do that. It is that big a war. He came to us with a proposal to start that effort, in a substantial way, under his leadership. He calls it the American Rescue Plan. I hear my colleagues come to the floor and really raise the question as to whether this is needed, and I just heard the speech of the minority leader, Senator McConnell.

What President Biden wants to do to deal with this pandemic, as we know it and as it is likely to evolve, is to provide $20 billion more for our vaccination program. Does anyone doubt the need for that? I don't. I think it is the key to getting America back to business.

He provides $50 billion for testing, lab capacity improvements, and genomic sequencing of this virus mutation. Again, I am not an expert in science, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me, after listening to Drs. Fauci and Collins, to make that investment right now.

President Biden wants to invest in 100,000 community health workers to help with the vaccinations and contact tracing--100,000. It seems like a lot, but in a nation of 350 million, I am not sure it is that overwhelming a number. He wants to fund the community health centers so that they will be able to tackle this issue and particularly address the issue of health disparities;

use the Defense Production Act to provide $10 billion for America's manufacturer of the key equipment we need to fight this pandemic and the next one, God forbid, whenever it may be; and to expand healthcare coverage for Americans in this time of pandemic by subsidizing COBRA coverage. What does it mean? If you had health insurance with your job and you lost your job and you lost your health insurance, we allow people to buy that health insurance that the employer offered, but they have to pay for the whole ride, both the employer's and employee's sides of it, and it turns out to be prohibitive. It doesn't work unless we give a subsidy for that coverage to be extended into your unemployment situation.

And then $4 billion, which sounds small when we are talking trillions, but $4 billion for community health--pardon me--behavioral health and addiction services and counseling services.

I learned the hard way over that break as well that we are ignoring the opiate crisis in America, but it is not ignoring us. It is dramatically increasing, primarily because we are not devoting the resources to it. And the mental health situation of many Americans is aggravated by isolation and social distancing, and addiction is even worse.

So I have just described for you the health side of President Biden's American Rescue Plan. I would like to hear any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle argue with me--I am ready to take them on--that that is not needed. Of course it is needed. It is needed now, and it needs to be an investment we make because if we don't break the back of this pandemic, we are not going to get this economy reopen again, we are not going to get our kids back in school, we are not going to get to see our grandkids the way we want to, our children or grandkids, and we are not going to see America return to what we all desperately want it to return to.

The reason I raise that this morning is when I heard the Senator from Kentucky raising skeptical observations about this plan, I thought back. It was a year ago on the floor of the Senate--nothing short of a political miracle--that the first CARES Act, under President Donald Trump, the first CARES Act passed this Senate with an overwhelming vote of 96 to nothing. That doesn't happen much around here, even for resolutions on motherhood. But 96 to nothing--bipartisan support for the relief bill proposed by President Trump and the Congress in March of last year. It was a good feeling, and we knew we had to do it. We were in it together, and we knew we had a challenge.

Then came last December, just a few weeks back, and again under the Trump administration a proposal for a $900 billion relief bill for COVID-19. It passed the Senate with 92 votes, 92 out of 100 Senators. It just showed the bipartisanship that we mustered, thank goodness, when we needed it because the Nation needed it, and we did it together--96 in March, 92 Senators in December. We stood behind that plan even though it had the blessing of a President of a different party at a controversial moment in history. We stood behind it because the American people needed it.

Now comes President Joe Biden, 5 or 6 weeks into his Presidency, and says: Let me take my leadership opportunity and responsibility seriously, and let me come with a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Where is the bipartisanship that we saw last year?

I do want to dispute the conclusion of Senator McConnell when it comes to the state of the economy. I did take a few economics courses. I don't profess to be an expert. Let's listen to someone who is: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, testifying on Capitol Hill. What did he have to say? Well, he told us that we are in a situation that is far from over. We have an economy that is still challenging.

Here are some things that were left out of the rosy analysis by the Senator from Kentucky:

``There are still 10 million more unemployed people than before the pandemic began.'' Ten million unemployed American workers. ``While many parts of the economy have recovered,'' Chairman Powell said, ``the unemployment rate for the lowest-paid quarter of the labor force is probably above 20 percent.'' Above 20 percent. ``There's a long way to go,'' Chairman Powell said.

Economic activity rebounded in the summer after much of the economy reopened from spring shutdowns. But that momentum ``slowed substantially,'' in the words of Chairman Powell, with sectors that rely on person-to-person contact, like hospitality and entertainment, enduring the worst blows. ``That burden has also largely fallen on low- wage workers, Black and Hispanic Americans, and other minority groups,'' Powell said.

I don't believe we are out of the woods yet. I believe we have got a long way to go. The American people believe that too.

President Biden believes it, and when he starts talking about getting us back on our feet, he is suggesting extending unemployment insurance programs that expire in just 2 weeks. On March 14, unemployment programs will start to expire, and he wants us to move quickly to make sure that doesn't happen.

I support that effort for two reasons. First, it is humane. We are talking about fellow Americans out of work through no choice of their own. Secondly, putting money into unemployment benefits for unemployed workers is the single best investment when it comes to revitalizing the economy. They do not turn to the Wall Street Journal when they receive those checks; they turn to the mailbox and try to figure out how they are going to pay the rent and pay for the food on the table. They spend the money. That is what unemployment is all about.

So to have the other side question President Biden's proposal to give unemployment benefits beyond March 14 really says that they are turning their backs on millions of Americans who have no place else to go.

Oh, there is a fear on the other side that we just may be paying people too much. You know, if you give them a little too much money on unemployment, they just might sit home and binge on Netflix and chocolate-covered cherries. Well, I suppose that is always going to happen no matter how you write the laws, but I think a lot more of American workers. I believe they want to get back to work anywhere near the salaries that they left behind. I think they are desperately looking for those opportunities, and we ought to help them in the meantime keep their families together.

Emergency paid leave is still an absolute necessity in light of this coronavirus and the way it deals with us.

I want to also make a plea here for the minimum wage, and I know there is some controversy associated with it.

Mr. President, glad to have you. You are new to the Senate.

Back at that desk there, a fellow named Ted Kennedy used to stand. I used to love to come to the floor when Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts would give his speeches. When he got into it, he was amazing. His booming voice could be heard all over the Senate Chamber, and I never heard him more energized than when he argued for increasing the minimum wage.

Oftentimes he was a lonely voice--there were no proposals before us and none likely to appear--but he never failed to come to this floor and remind us on a regular basis of how we had failed year after year after year to increase the minimum wage.

He would tell the story of people in America getting up and going to work every single day, sometimes two jobs a day, to try to keep their families together and still qualifying for food stamps and assistance from our government. He would ask us when we were going to give them the dignity of passing an increase in the minimum wage.

I can still hear him thundering across the Chamber. I wouldn't want to be in the place of arguing a different position than the one he held because he took it over. I don't have that skill; I wish I did. I am glad to have seen him use that skill so effectively to help people who were just doing their best to get by and struggling.

How many times do all of us give speeches about inequality in America and why we have to do better for the working people? We do it all the time, and everybody knows it is a fact. Wages in America, salaries have not kept up. People at the top have done quite well, thank you, but those at the bottom have struggled to get by.

Try to make it on $7.25 an hour. I was trying to do a calculation earlier on

just what that is. Is that $15,000 a year? Is that $1,200 a month? Is that $300 a week? Could you make it on $300 a week? I am talking about everything, now. I am talking about rent and mortgage and car payment, food, utilities--the basics. I couldn't. I don't know how anyone can, and most can't. They fall deeply into debt and into despair.

So when President Biden talks about us reopening the conversation about our Federal minimum wage, it is long overdue--long overdue--and it is an easier issue for me than some because our Governor, J. B. Pritzker, when he took over the State of Illinois, set us on course to reach $15 an hour as a State over the same period of time that Joe Biden has suggested, by 2025.

I just want to say that those people who are really struggling with the notion of increasing the minimum wage in all fairness really ought to think about the people out there who are struggling to get by week to week and month to month.

There is another proposal that is in this bill that is currently being debated, and it is the $1,400 addition to the cash payment for many families. I put it in the same category in order to restore equity and opportunity to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have it. This is the second installment. The first was $600 in the bill we passed last December. This $1,400 payment will help many families.

I want to add one element that was debated a few weeks ago. Senator Todd Young of Indiana, whom I respect and is a friend, had offered an amendment at what was known as a vote-arama as to who would receive this $600 payment. I think the payment amount has been increased in the latest Biden proposal.

But the point I tried to make and I think he and I agree on, although I won't speak for him, is that if a child legally in America, a citizen of this country, with a Social Security number, lives in a household with parents who are undocumented--they may be working and paying taxes with something called an ITIN--but that child should not be discriminated against or at a disadvantage because of the parents' immigration status. If the children qualify, the children should be receiving those payments. I believe the House reconciliation bill does that, and I hope that any measure that we consider will do the same.

So let me close. I see the Senator on the floor asking for an opportunity to speak.

Yes, I support the American Rescue Plan. Is it possible that I would have written it differently? Yes. Are there provisions I would change? Yes. But I want to tell you, when we passed the CARES Act measure last December, that was true as well.

We are in a time of a national challenge and a national crisis. We have a President who is facing it squarely, taking it on, accepting responsibility, and asking for our help. Can we do anything less?

I announce that the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Warnock), is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Committee on Environment and Public Works

The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nominations.

Committee on Indian Affairs

The Committee on Indian Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Committee on Veterans' Affairs

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 4 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, at 1 p.m., to conduct a closed hearing.

I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, ``More deaths in 2020 than in any year in over a decade.'' That is what the Chicago Sun-Times headline read last week. But this wasn't a story about the coronavirus. It was an article about suicide. There were more suicides by Black residents of Cook County, IL, in 2020 than over the past 10 years. All told, 437 of our neighbors in Cook County took their lives.

At the same time, more than 600 Cook County residents died from opioid overdoses between January and June 2020 alone--double the number from a year earlier.

While the human suffering of COVID-19 has captured our attention, as it should, two other deadly epidemics in America still rage on: opioids and the mental health crises.

Even before the virus took its toll, we had been in the midst of the worst drug overdose crisis in our Nation's history, and we are witnessing skyrocketing rates of suicide. But COVID-19 has deepened these epidemics, which sadly feed on isolation and despair.

With the convergence of coronavirus emergencies, we are failing those most vulnerable to addiction and mental health challenges. And like the coronavirus, mental health challenges and addiction can occur with any one of us in any family, in any neighborhood.

Earlier this month, the New York Times profiled three American mothers on the brink of chaos and crisis. The story chronicled the relentless stress and burdens of working mothers over 11 months of this panic--struggling to balance remote learning duties for their kids, keeping their families safe and healthy, keeping food on the table, paying the bills, and knowing that every morning they have to get up and do it all over again that day and the next day, with no end in sight.

One of the mothers described the struggle this way. She said:

We are holding together with the same tape that we have

been using since March. The tape is barely working, but we

are still here.

She speaks for millions of mothers. Experts and advocates warn that COVID-19 has created a perfect storm for a surge in mental health and addiction. Isolation, fear, grief, financial hardship all come together and can feel overwhelming.

At the same time, the pandemic has made it more difficult for many to connect with lifesaving care and social services. Peer recovery meetings have moved to Zoom; routine human connections have been lost; and treatment access restricted. It is trauma on the brain and body, and it fuels the alarming spikes in addiction, overdose, and suicide.

Last week, I spoke with advocates from the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine and a group called Live4Lali, a community organization focusing on recovery and harm reduction. These community leaders provide lifesaving care through recovery programs, street medicine, handing out fentanyl test strips, and distributing the overdose reversal drug naloxone.

The statistics they shared with me on Chicago-area opioid overdose deaths during this pandemic are devastating. In the last year, opioid deaths have soared: 23 percent in Lake County, 37 percent in DuPage County, and a staggering 64 percent in McHenry County.

Every morning, we look at the posting on CNN of the deaths in America from the coronavirus. Heartbreaking. Over a half a million people dead. But we are not posting the increase in deaths from opioids during the same periods of time.

Addiction is an equal opportunity killer. But like COVID, the opioid epidemic strikes communities of color with a disproportionate ferocity. In Chicago, Black residents are dying from overdoses at seven times the rate of White residents.

Let me tell you about one person who sought help from Live4Lali, a woman named Tonya, who recently moved to Lake County. When the pandemic hit, the recovery meetings for her substance abuse disorder shifted to Zoom, and the weight of the challenge left Tonya to struggle. She knew her recovery was in danger.

For days, she called for treatment programs, but no beds were available. Desperate, she called 9-1-1 emergency care at a hospital. Tonya was evaluated and sent home. Feeling hopeless and ashamed, she decided to take all of the pills in her mother's bottle of blood thinner medication. She was taken unconscious back to the hospital and pronounced dead.

Too many like Tonya are being left alone in their darkest hours. And it is not just in the Chicagoland area. According to the CDC, emergency room visits for suicides and overdoses spiked nationally once the pandemic gripped our Nation. By May, the country had experienced its largest 1-month spike in overdose deaths.

A new survey conducted by the CDC also found that one in four young adults had considered suicide in the past month--one in four. This should set off alarm bells in every direction.

There is no vaccine against despair and addiction, but there are programs and treatments and strategies. We must give communities and healthcare providers the support they need now more than ever.

The American Rescue Plan proposed by President Biden provides those resources. The House is expected to vote on the President's plan this week. The Senate has to show the same sense of commitment and urgency.

The American Rescue Plan includes nearly $4 billion in addiction and mental health treatments for healthcare providers. It has $7.6 billion for Community Health Centers to address behavioral health disparities.

It includes a plan that I crafted with Senator Rubio to increase the availability of healthcare, including behavioral health treatment, by providing scholarship and loan repayment awards to build the pipeline of health professionals who agree to serve in needy areas.

Special efforts were made to recruit more people of color into these healing professions, which can help tackle disparities. The President's Rescue Plan also expands health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. This money will save lives.

America has arrived at the heartbreaking milestone: half a million COVID deaths. As we work to expand vaccinations and end COVID-19, we cannot ignore the lethal epidemics of addiction and suicide, which are soaring in the cold shadows of this pandemic.

Every day we wait, more people, in every ZIP code in America, struggle. More families grieve. More lives are lost. We need to get help to the people who need it now

Mr. President, you and I are veterans of Congress. We have been doing this for a few years. Some things happen that give you hope. A year ago, we passed the CARES Act. It was nothing short of amazing, but we did it at a moment of real fear. We just saw this pandemic starting to rise. We saw businesses starting to close. We moved quickly, decisively, with the biggest spending bill in the history of the United States, more than $2 trillion for the CARES Act. And it passed this Senate, in this hopelessly politically divided America, by a vote of 96 to 0--the CARES Act.

Well, it took us a while to come back with a reprise or an answer to what happened after it passed. The pandemic raged through America. The economy floundered. Millions were unemployed. And in December, just a few short weeks ago, we passed the second bill, the December relief bill, $900 billion, a sizable investment. And we characterized it as an emergency response, a special response, a temporary fix to go into the system and pay for unemployment benefits and many other things--$900 billion, a substantial sum of money. And it passed here with 92 affirmative votes: 96 on the first, 92 on the second. Still, amazing rollcalls in a politically divided Chamber like the U.S. Senate.

Then came the new President. I won't put in all the other chapters that occurred that seemed like an endless novel, but it was serious. But this President came in--President Biden came in and faced the reality of what we have in America today. Last night, he did it as well. He and the First Lady, as well as Vice President Harris and the First Gentleman, stood in silent prayer for the half million Americans we have lost. Not ignoring the problem but facing the problem, President Biden said: Come together, America, unite, and let's, with common purpose, address this pandemic and the problems it has created.

It is a much different approach in his Presidency. To me, it is honest. It is refreshing. It is hopeful. But he has turned to this Congress and asked this Congress to pass the American Rescue Plan. It is a measure that costs $1.9 trillion. It is huge. It has to be. Considering what we face in America, we need nothing less. Maybe we will not need to spend every penny. I hope we don't. But we better be prepared to pay for it if we are--money for more vaccine and distribution of that vaccine; money for cash payments to families who need a helping hand; money for unemployment benefits that are supposed to run out in just 2 short weeks, on March 14; money for rental assistance for people who are facing eviction; money for schools so that they can prepare the classrooms for teachers and students to return safely. The list goes on, and it is an important and valuable list and, as I mentioned, money for mental health treatment and addiction treatment that is still a very real challenge in America today.

The difference is this. In the CARES Act, with 96 to 0, and in the December bill, which we passed with 92 affirmative votes, those were under the Trump administration, and there was a strong bipartisan support of that legislation, as you can tell from the numbers. The rollcalls tell the story.

Now comes President Biden, asking for another rescue package for America, which is still languishing, fighting this pandemic. We don't hear the same calls for bipartisanship or at least we don't hear the same responses to the calls for bipartisanship. Why? What is different? The only thing different is we have a different President.

When it was a Republican President named Trump, Democrats, like myself and virtually all others, stood by and said: Let's do it together. We can disagree on everything under the Sun, but when it comes to this pandemic and what it is doing to America, we are

going to stand together, both political parties. But when President Biden makes the same proposal, we don't hear the chorus of support from across the aisle that we once did. That is disheartening to me.

The problem is real. Sure, there are ways any legislator could perhaps write the bill better, but let's get that done, and let's respond, as the President has called, with the resources America needs to get back on its feet. That is where we are today.

The House is going to pass their measure this week. And in the next couple of weeks, the Senate will get its chance. It is time for us to stand up and do something. The American people didn't send us here to squabble or to find reasons for differences but rather to come together in a bipartisan way and solve the problems facing this country.

The President believes, and I share that belief, that a united America with the resources can conquer this challenge as it has so many in the past. We can do that, but we need to do it by coming together.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, ``Remember this day forever.'' That is what Donald Trump said on January 6, in a tweet to his supporters after they had attacked the U.S. Capitol.

I certainly will never forget what happened that day. I will remember the Vice President being removed from the Chair and whisked off the floor of the Senate by the Secret Service. I will remember the law enforcement officers, holding automatic weapons, standing guard in the well of the Senate while the mob spread through the Capitol building.

The entire country and the world will remember the now infamous images of a murderous mob rushing the barricades, attacking police officers, breaking into this building, and rampaging through these hallowed halls.

We will remember the incredible acts of heroism by Officer Eugene Goodman and others, to protect and defend those who work in this building. And we will remember the lives lost, including Officer Brian Sicknick, and the 140 police officers who were injured in this attack.

On February 3, Officer Sicknick's ashes rested in honor in the Rotunda of this Capitol. He died defending this building and this democracy. I have thought about Officer Sicknick and his family often in the past few weeks.

During the week of February 8, Senators served as jurors in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Former President Trump was impeached on January 13 by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote, 10 Republicans joining with Democrats to impeach.

The Senate had a constitutional obligation to conduct a trial on this Article of Impeachment. We also had an obligation to make clear for the record and for history what happened on January 6 and the days leading up to it.

What did the record show over the course of this trial?

First, it showed Donald Trump's big lie: his claim that the only way he could lose an election was if it were stolen. When he lost the 2020 election in a landslide to Joe Biden, Donald Trump refused to accept the will of the American people. He tried to challenge the election in the courts, losing over 60 times. He tried to bully State officials into overturning their States' election results.

And when that failed, he invited his followers to come to Washington, DC, on January 6, the day when Congress would assemble to certify the States' electoral votes. He invited them to come to DC to interrupt that process and, in his words, ``stop the steal.''

Donald Trump knew what his extremist followers were capable of. Over the summer, when armed extremists stormed and occupied State capitols, demanding an end to COVID-19 safety restrictions, he had cheered them on.

On January 6, he whipped his followers into a frenzy. ``We have to fight like hell,'' he told the crowd he had invited and assembled. ``If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.'' Then he told his followers--angry, inflamed, many of them armed--to go to the Capitol where the Vice President and Congress were certifying the votes.

Donald Trump was not shocked what happened that day. He was excited. We now know that he ignored pleas from Members of Congress in the Capitol--members of his own party--who begged him to calm the mob and stop the attack.

To this day, Donald Trump has not showed one ounce of remorse or regret. He later described his speech on January 6 as ``totally appropriate.''

For 5 days, the House Managers meticulously laid out an overwhelming case for conviction. The managers had the facts, the law, the Constitution, and a mountain of evidence on their side. The former President's defense team did not have much to work with. They only spent a couple of hours making their case and spent much of that

time showing cartoonish videos on repeat. The House Managers effectively rebutted all of the former President's defenses. The managers' case was clear, and it was compelling.

That is why I voted to convict Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection against our government.

I regret that more of my Republican colleagues did not join me in voting to convict and disqualify Donald Trump from holding future office. I wish the Senate had sent an unequivocal message that it is unacceptable for Presidents to incite violence in order to stop the peaceful transition of power. But that said, history will show that this was the most bipartisan impeachment vote against a President in American history.

And it should not be lost that a majority of Senators--including seven Senators from the President's own party--voted to convict him. Donald Trump is no longer President of the United States, but the poison he has injected into our national bloodstream remains, and it is still toxic.

As Americans reflect on the horrific, deadly events of January 6 and Donald Trump's role in inciting them, I hope we will remember that democracy and our Constitution do not defend themselves. They must be protected, preserved, and defended by ``We the People.''

On January 6, that greatest tradition of American democracy, the peaceful transition of power that had taken place in every Presidential transition since George Washington's, was broken. Our democracy, our Constitution, and this Capitol building were attacked on January 6, 2021. Brave Americans were wounded and killed defending them. And thanks to that bravery, our democracy endures.

We must learn our lessons from this. We will remember January 6, 2021, forever. And we must not repeat it.

Mr. President, today, I would like to recognize the life of an exceptional woman: Karen Lewis. Most remember Karen as the fiery president of the Chicago Teachers Union who led the 2012 strike. Karen always fought for what she believed. She devoted her career to education and people. Her commitment to her beloved teachers was her North Star.

Most will remember that Karen was no stranger to challenge. She attended Mount Holyoke College before transferring to Dartmouth College as a member of the first coeducational class in the institution's history. She had the courage to try her hand at medical school before finding her calling in teaching. As a new member in her teachers union, Karen did not hesitate to stand up when she thought something could be done better and ran for union offices as a member of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, CORE.

However, this was only one side of Karen Lewis. In many ways she was a true renaissance woman. In Karen's love of opera, her musical skill playing both flute and piano, her love of languages, her conversion to Judaism, and her passion for professional tennis, you could see the many facets of her life.

But, above all else, I will remember Karen as a friend to both Loretta and me.

In 2014, she was diagnosed with gioblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. I remembered her diagnosis when many months later my colleague, Senator John McCain, faced the same challenge. I asked Karen who seemed to be weathering her personal storm if she would speak with John and she, of course, agreed. I do not know if the conversation took place, but I thought that these two heroes of much different wars could become unusual allies in

the common struggle each of us will face.

The word ``legendary'' is overused, but when it comes to Karen Lewis, it falls short of describing an amazing life journey. I am reminded of a quote from Confucius that roughly translates to: ``If your plan is for one year, plant rice; if your plan is for ten years, plant trees; if your plan is for one hundred years, educate children.'' I am thankful for Karen's 100-year plan. Let us honor her memory by continuing her work to educate the children of America.